“Desire” is a word that has spell-bounded many human beings since the birth of time. Desire means that we lack something and we want that object to feel whole or completed. Can we ever feel complete? What does it mean to be complete? What does wholeness mean? You may have many questions cluttering your mind. We all know that our only discomfort in life is that, our objects of desire fail to manifest. It drives us crazy. The job that we want, the car we want to purchase, the house we want to live in, the partner we always dreamed of, etc. Many things are there. The mysterious question is that, what do you deeply desire?
Let us assume you always wanted the car that you always dreamed of. By saving money you get that car and it makes you happy. You are in euphoria when you see that shiny metal object standing in your garage. Now the significance of that car is that it somehow fulfills your inner lack ness, Right?. That car fills some unextinguishable void of your mind. The mind was satisfied and felt contented. But when a few days start passing, the glittering of that object starts to fade through our minds. And a point comes when we see that it’s not the car but our attempt to have an expansion of ourselves (our identity). You buy a small home, moving from there you desire to have a bigger house. People always tell that be satisfied with what you have right now in your life. There was an ancient technique in this that people and the ancient seers knew that the inextinguishable thirst of your desire can never be fulfilled so they said that be contented in what you have and the peace of mind is yours. But the question arises that what do you mean by the peace of mind?
There was an ancient secret that the ancient seers knew that the world is eternal. All the scriptures point out that the construction, sustenance, and destruction of universes are going on since eternal time. First, you have to curb your desires to stay happy and contented but then afterward if you deeply look into this life that life shows you that it can provide you with whatever you want. Life is abundant and we are a part of it. When our desires get fulfilled, instead of being grateful we tend to increase our greed for life. I am not saying that greed is good or bad but the balance of greed (thirst of life) should be decided by the individual himself because there is no fixed boundary where you know that you should stop your greed and bury your dreams and wishes into your ground. Now the venerable buddha knew the whole picture and drama of the cosmos. He knew ‘that’ which he attempted to say through his teachings but never got to say ‘that’ simple one thing which is so simple that it cannot be said!. Now let’s see what happened.
First, Gautama saw the kingly life of his time. Then he had a major insight when he saw the harsh things of life. Then he decided to go out leaving the kingdom and search for truth. He exercised his willpower to death to unravel the truth. He desired the truth, the ultimate, and ‘he’ did everything, and when he sat under the bodhi tree frustrated and took a vow that until he will be enlightened he will never get up from that place. Then he got the whole picture in a split second. That split-second ‘aha’ moment had the power to engulf and swallow the whole eternity. That simple thing came and descended upon him. Because before ” he” did everything possible and he always deviated from it. But when he just surrendered to life, that dimension opened up in him and he got that which cannot be explained in words due to its unfathomable simplicity. It can be said, he didn’t get ‘that’ because it is not something to ‘achieve’ and he got that aha moment that it’s not achievable through “me”. So now he wanted to shower these diamonds of this ”ultimately unspeakable” upon other people, and that came out through his teachings. He said, “you are suffering because of your desires”.
Now, what does a common man wants? From the spectrum between poor and rich, that all his mind’s desires be fulfilled. It doesn’t matter if it is just for a one-time lunch or to conquer the whole world! The unfulfillment of desires makes the mind restless. Now any person who is perceptible enough like buddha knew that the very basis of creation is ‘desire’. Without desire, the creation could not get manifested. In Hinduism, the Advaita philosophy says that the brahman or the ‘ultimate’ had its first desire, that when the ‘ultimate knew it was the ultimate‘ the life or the first god with the power of Maya was manifested. Let us simplify this. You desire a bar of chocolate. That means a thought sprung up in your mind. It showed that from a feeling of contentment you came to a feeling of lack. From your state of rest, you came to a state of restlessness to acquire that object which is not “you” and it developed a sense in you that the state of restlessness will vanish when you eat the chocolate. Now to grab the chocolate, the mind with its intricate mechanism starts to take shape of the object. Now the intensity and thirst of chocolate will be directly proportional to the restlessness in your psyche and it will impel all your inner and outer organs to work in all manner to satisfy that desire. Until and unless you eat the chocolate, you won’t feel a sense of wholeness. When you eat the chocolate, the fulfillment you get is also directly proportional to the intensity and thirst of the desire. It is said since ancient times that the number of a person’s desires triumph over the number of particles of sand which are there on all the beaches of the world! So what is this all about? Life in its intricate nature seeks expansion from itself. The universe is expanding. Simply if you see that trees expand themselves and shoot branches in the air and try to reach towards the sky. The flower wants to expand its species and hence the pollination. What’s going on? Now the question is that is desiring for someone, some object, is bad? we have learned that desires drive us restless. We know all this from our experience. Until and unless the desires are fulfilled we don’t get a sense of contentment. Now when our all intense desires are fulfilled then what? I leave that question up to you.
Whatever has been said above is upper layers. Let’s dive into a deeper abyss. I believe that our desires are guiding us towards the realization of their futility. Let us understand this with some examples. We get frightened when we realize that our desires are something which we shouldn’t desire! What do I mean by that? For example when we are in a relationship with our beloved partner. He/She is caring and pouring their heart and soul into you. They were the exact person that you always dreamt of. You are holding hands, gazing at each other, and walking across the beach and suddenly you see a desirable man/woman gaze at you and just for a split second, a thought crosses your mind. “Oh, she is beautiful!”, “What a lovely body!”. What is it in that stranger that attracts you soo much? And now you are filled with thoughts in your mind about that person. You maybe be with the person you love but your mind is filled with thoughts for that specific stranger. Here the game starts. The person which is unknown, invoked some ‘feature’ of his in your mind which your partner lacks! It is so simple as that. The lacking thing in your partner is being projected by that person. We all know that we are not perfect in ourselves. All lack something or the other. A person may be tall but not romantic, a person may be romantic but he is short. And even if a person has all qualities in him or her, you will always manage to find new talents, features, and ideas of the next person pleasing you, am I right?. Now, why does it happen like this? What’s the fundamental reason that drives us towards this type of thinking. Simply, it’s the desire my friend. Nature wants you to desire everything possible, as many and infinite things as possible because that’s the way how universe sustains itself.
since childhood, we have all been conditioned that God fulfills all our desires, hence praying to god. As we grow up with this notion we see that some of our desires were not fulfilled or we can say that some events, circumstances, and other things didn’t manifest according to our will and desires, so we blamed god. And it is simple to make out this play. The non-believers in god had bad experiences in the past so they don’t believe in god whereas the people who had most of their desires fulfilled, believed in god. It’s simple. The object of desire was fulfilled. Your degree of belief in God depends upon the degree of your desires manifesting according to your mind. I hope you liked my thoughts and I will be happy to see yours in the comment section.